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Clarkson PLC (LON:CKN) Insiders Have Been Selling

It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell Clarkson PLC (LON:CKN), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.

What Is Insider Selling?

It’s quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.

Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Harvard University study found that ‘insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.’

Clarkson Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by President of Brokerage & Investment Banking and Director Peter Anker for UK£2.0m worth of shares, at about UK£27.50 per share. So what is clear is that an insider saw fit to sell at around the current price of UK£21.25. They could have a variety of motivations for selling, but it’s still not particularly encouraging to see. We generally tread carefully if insiders have been selling on market, even if they sold slightly above the current price.

In total, Clarkson insiders sold more than they bought over the last year. The sellers received a price of around UK£27.32, on average. It’s not ideal to see that insiders have sold at around the current price. While some insiders have decided to take some money off the table, we wouldn’t put too much weight on this fact. The chart below shows insider transactions over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

Does Clarkson Boast High Insider Ownership?

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It’s great to see that Clarkson insiders own 2.7% of the company, worth about UK£16m. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Clarkson Tell Us?

It doesn’t really mean much that no insider has traded Clarkson shares in the last quarter. The insider transactions at Clarkson are not very heartening. But we do like the fact that insiders own a fair chunk of the company. Therefore, you should should definitely take a look at this FREEreport showing analyst forecasts for Clarkson.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.